In which way can yoga help to bring peace and harmony into the educational system?
Nowadays people think of education as a matter of intellectual development only. They do not consider that discipline is also part of education. Therefore, in most educational institutions, you will find there is practically no discipline. The relationship between the teacher and those taught is absent. Whether the teacher is great or not, the first discipline that the student must have is respect for the teacher. Otherwise, whatever he learns from the teacher will not become fruitful in his life.
According to Indian tradition, in the gurukul system, it was always the disciple’s duty to get up before the guru and shampoo his feet, then the guru would get up. Now, these customs are completely forgotten because that closeness between guru and disciple no longer exists. The students do not live with the teachers and they do not even know how the teachers live.
The relationship between teacher and student is not based on discipline, respect or learning. I learn geography from you because the government has appointed you as my teacher; it is not I who choose you as my teacher. In the olden days, students used to develop so much respect for the teacher from whom they learned. Nowadays, however, we never even say from whom we have learned. We will only say we are from Delhi University or Oxford or Stanford; nothing to do with the professor or teacher.
Another important factor in education is personal discipline insofar as the student is concerned. Nowadays students get up after their parents. There are some students who never see the rising sun. There are five important characteristics of students which were enumerated to us when we were children. These are: kaga chesta – the student must be as alert as a crow; bakodhyanam – he must have concentration like a crane who stands still for hours watching for fish; swananidra – he must be able to sleep like a dog; alpahari – he must eat very little; grihatyagi – he must have nothing to do with his family affairs. These are the five characteristics of a great student.
The student’s life has got to be disciplined throughout, but unfortunately this type of discipline and order has been completely ignored in the present educational curriculum. Now it appears that a student can lead any type of life. He can do anything except austerity. He can drink, he can read rubbish books, he can wear any kind of dress, but he has nothing to do with austerity, with discipline, with respect or obedience.
In order to bring yoga into the educational curriculum, first you must bring discipline, austerity and absolute respect, irrespective of what you feel. The moment this concept is brought in, then order is established and everything runs smoothly. The fundamentals of yoga are self-control and discipline – yama and niyama. Yama means ‘self-control’ and niyama means ‘a particular way of living with law and order’. This is the foundation of yoga. It is on this principle that asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana and dhyana are all built. If the foundation is weak, the edifice will also be weak.
If we force this type of ethics, or ‘do’s and don’ts’, upon the student, isn’t there a possibility of suppressing his personality?
No. There will be correct expression. Suppression is only possible when the teacher tries to discipline the student in the most irrational way, otherwise not. Discipline should come from within; it should not be forced. Self-discipline is the result of a disciplined mind and yoga makes its own contribution towards this.
What is your point of view about social discipline and freedom?
In free enterprise everybody is asked to do his own thing, because almost the whole world today stands undisciplined except for a few nations where there may be social discipline, but even in those countries there is no individual discipline. Individual discipline is a subject of yoga and social discipline is a subject of political administration. This social discipline has got to be maintained by force in the beginning because there are a few elements who will oppose it, who will try to create undisciplined behaviour. They will have to be corrected, but this is only necessary in the beginning. Once social discipline has been established, there is no need for suppression or compulsion. When there is absolute lawlessness in human society, in order to uproot that lawlessness, a certain amount of freedom has got to be controlled, but when order has been established and that continues for a few years, then gradually you remove the controlling strings and allow more social and individual freedom. That is essential.
I agree that freedom is the greatest heritage of man. However, freedom should only be given after checking the qualifications of each and every individual. Many people do not know why they want freedom. They want freedom to do whatever they like; nobody should stand in their way. If they do something bad, who are you to say? This is the usual conception. People are not aware of the higher aspects of freedom, which is freedom of the self, expression of the soul, which enables one to do a great work. Freedom for the sake of doing whatever one likes is a very narrow, very low, selfish and negative concept of freedom that people have in their minds. There may be a few thousand people in the world who are intellectually conscious of the higher level of freedom, but we don’t mean these people at all when we say that freedom has to be controlled for some time.
18 September 1967, India